Off to India: India is amazing!

Let me just start by saying this: India is amazing! It’s so exciting, diverse, chaotic, yes but also so much fun!

Today I went on a trip to Bangalore with Lizzy, Sachin and many of the other volunteers. We started our trip at 9 am, when Babu, our driver, picked us up at the school. The ride to Bangalore took us about 2 hours and I had the chance to see all the things that were strange and kind of scary when I arrived Friday night in daylight. We were driving through so many small villages with people everywhere, preparing food, selling stuff, riding motorcycles or just standing around talking. There was just so much going on everywhere, it was really hard not to miss anything. Everything was really simple and small as the villagers were clearly not wealthy people.

So as we arrived in the outer parts of Bangalore it was like suddenly waking up in a whole new world. All the firms stationed in Bangalore (HP, Intel,...) had their technology parks there, massive futuristic buildings out of glass and steel that really felt out of place.

Babu then dropped us of in the inner city, at a hotel called Ramada as some people where staying overnight. After they checked in we took a motor riksha (which is called “auto” here) to somewhere near a restaurant we wanted to go. The ride there was just crazy. You all may have already seen a video of Indian traffic in your lives but actually being a part of it is so different. It really takes you some time till you’re not afraid to die any second anymore. As Babu put it quite right: “You go through the traffic like a snake.” There are driving lanes but nobody ever cares. You just look for holes in traffic where your car, auto or motorcycle fits in and honk constantly so others will know you are passing them. Its just amazing how well this works, we didn’t even touch any other vehicle and we were driving around a lot that day. In the villages you also have dogs or cows lying on the street, people will just drive around them in the last moment and they don’t even care. Oh yeah, you’ll see stray dogs everywhere, walking around in piles of trash, sleeping on the street or looking for something to eat. Even on the school campus you will encounter a stray dog sometimes. There are also two “official” dogs that belong to the security staff called Chelsea and Chester and they are just so cute.

The restaurant called “Geoffry’s” was located inside a very nice and exclusive hotel away from all the traffic so we sat in the garden enjoying the peace and the quiet. I had a delicious Thai Green Curry with rice and I realized that, except for the mushrooms I didn’t know any of the vegetables in the sauce which tasted amazing. There were leaves that looked a bit like spinach but tasted like a mixture of lemon and peppermint. I also had an Indian Kingfisher beer for the first time which was quite good - especially as it was cool and really refreshing. The coke I got was also interesting, Indian coke is really different from European and American coke, they put spices in it that give it a great taste.

After that we were ready to hit commercial street and go shopping! We took an auto to get there and there was so much more going on than everywhere else I’ve been. You just can’t capture that on a picture, you really have to be there yourself. Speaking about being there: it didn’t really think about the fact that I was India, it just felt right. But as I imagined a world map with a small point in Bangalore and another in Stuttgart I realized how crazy this was, having been in Germany only two days ago and now you’re walking down a street in a town in the middle of India, being the only European there. Actually, as we went back to the hotel where we met the others, I met an Italian guy who lived in Tuscany and gave me the name and address of the restaurant he runs there. Isn’t that amazing? I’ll definitely try and eat there next time I’m on vacation in Italy!

At commercial street at first i could do nothing but follow the girls wherever they went as it felt like there were absolutely no shops for men. There was a shoe store that had really nice and incredibly cheap shoes, but I couldn’t decide if I should get a pair or two so I’ll probably do that next time.

As I head a slight headache and really needed some caffeine I went to a place called “Café Coffee Day”, the Indian equivalent of Starbucks with Sachin. As it was quite warm outside I didn’t want a hot coffee at first and ordered an energy drink. As I took a closer look at the can I was shocked to see that in India they don’t put caffeine in these drinks but nicotine! I mean, could I get addicted drinking these?

For the moment I decided not to drink and take it back to the school with me...just give me your opinion wether I should risk it or not ;)

I went for a black coffee and a piece of hot chocolate cake instead. Both were delicious! I mean, drinking this coffee I felt like having a really good espresso in Italy and the best thing about the cake was that it was soft, sweet and totally vegan. India is such a great place: literally on every menu or packed food you buy you’ll find either a red of a green dot. Red means non-veg and green veg. So at the restaurant we went to for lunch I could immediately figure out what I could eat. The best thing is, for Indians eggs are non-vegetarian so an apple pie will have a red dot on the menu as there are eggs in it. The chocolate pie had a green dot so I can only say: why can’t Germans figure out how to make such an amazing cake without eggs? :)

After this coffee break we continued our shopping tour, I went to a place called “Health & Glow” a drugstore where I could get a razor as I forgot mine right before leaving. I then joined the girls at a nice placed called “Fabindia” that sold men’s clothes! I took the chance to buy two linen trousers, two Kurtas (traditional Indian shirts) and a shirt with short sleeves an a nice pattern - pictures will follow soon ;)

They are soooo comfortable and the quality is really good.

Now I was walking around with two of the girls and we were already thinking about going back to the hotel where we would meet the others and our driver as it began to rain. It started off slow but soon it was a real monsoon rain just flooding everything and with umbrellas being useless we sought cover under a small roof, waiting for it to end or at least get better.

As it didn’t get any better we decided to take an auto to the hotel. During the drive we realized just how much it rained: we were driving into a slightly lower part of a street so all the water just flowed down there and stayed as there wasn’t any drainage. It was at least 30cm high - now that’s how you imagine monsoon to be :D

The driver was really talented and got us to the hotel save and in no time. Arriving there we were surprised to see that nobody was there. After waiting for 5 minutes we went up to the room as one of them was staying over night. There Lizzy called us and informed us that they couldn’t get to the hotel because of the rain. They were looking for a solution and after maybe 40 minutes they managed to get there with Babu who picked us up. We didn’t have dinner yet but we decided to go straight to Shanti Bhavan as it was already dark and so we wouldn’t arrive there too late.

Back in my room, while writing this post I realized I forgot to tell you about the “controlled power cuts” which is a fun thing ;) The state of Tamil Nadu, where Shanti Bhavan is has decided to save power by just turning it out several times a day for three hours. So power (and that also means light) will go out at 12 pm, go back on at 3 am till 6 am and then go out again. This means you really have to plan when you can charge your computer, phone etc.

So that’s it for today, until next time!